Varanasi Junction plans waiting space for 400 to 500 passengers

VARANASI: A festival passenger management plan reported on Thursday, November 5, 2026, provides for a holding area with space for 400 to 500 people at Varanasi Junction. The arrangement concerns travellers using the Cantt station during the Diwali and Chhath rush, with Northern Railway's Lucknow division preparing additional trains and security deployment across its network.

Passengers should follow the queue and waiting arrangements indicated by railway staff when they reach the station. The Varanasi facility was described as being developed, so travellers should ask staff where to wait rather than assume that a particular entrance or waiting enclosure has already opened. The reports give its planned capacity but no opening hour.

For assistance or a service complaint, passengers can use 139 or RailMadad. Families arranging a journey through Cantt should keep the train number and travel date handy when seeking information. The division's official festival advisory asks travellers to cooperate with railway employees and follow their instructions.

What is planned at Varanasi Junction

Two reports published on November 5 describe the same station arrangements. Alongside the holding area, Varanasi Junction is to have 45 Railway Protection Force personnel per shift. The staffing figure refers to a shift, rather than the station's total deployment over a full day. The reports do not specify a separate starting time for that deployment.

A divisional control room will monitor passenger movement around the clock. Commercial department staff, the Railway Protection Force and Government Railway Police will coordinate crowd management. For someone arriving at a busy station, this means that instructions about waiting and access may come from railway commercial staff as well as security personnel.

The surveillance total needs to be read carefully. The plan mentions 386 cameras across Lucknow, Varanasi Junction and Ayodhya Dham together. It does not assign all 386 to Varanasi or provide a stationwise breakdown. Likewise, the planned 400 to 500 spaces describe the Varanasi holding area's capacity, not a count of passengers already waiting there.

• Local station: Varanasi Junction, in the Cantt area.
• Planned holding capacity: 400 to 500 passengers.
• RPF deployment: 45 personnel per shift at Varanasi Junction.
• Monitoring: a divisional control room operating round the clock.
• Passenger assistance and grievances: 139 and RailMadad.

Special trains are a divisional provision

The wider Lucknow division plan lists 54 pairs of festival special trains making 1,704 trips. Those are totals for services passing through the division. They should not be read as 54 pairs originating at Varanasi, or as confirmation that every special train calls at Cantt. A passenger still needs a service that actually serves the intended boarding station and destination.

Ten additional train services are also planned between Monday, November 9, and Friday, November 13. These are described as a response to demand. The reports do not identify their train numbers, departure hours or individual Varanasi stops, so the announcement alone cannot serve as a timetable for a journey from the city.

Other measures include seven spare rakes at Lucknow and an additional sleeper coach on each of eight regular trains during the specified festival period. The available reports do not name those eight trains. These provisions explain the division's reserve capacity, but they do not establish that a particular Varanasi passenger's booked train will gain a coach.

The station arrangements elsewhere also differ. Lucknow has a holding area in its passenger reservation building and 26 temporary platform shelters. Ayodhya Dham and Ayodhya Cantt each have a proposed additional holding capacity of 2,500. Those facilities are at their respective stations; the Varanasi figure remains 400 to 500.

A separate official inspection update, published at 12:36 am IST on November 5, says Divisional Railway Manager Sunil Kumar Verma reviewed passenger facilities and security at Lucknow station ahead of the festivals. The photograph accompanying this article shows that divisional inspection at Lucknow.

What residents should do

Before setting out, check the station printed on the ticket and obtain current information for the specific train. Varanasi Junction, Banaras and Varanasi City appear in different local rail services. The new holding area report identifies Varanasi Junction. It does not announce the same arrangement at every station carrying the city's passengers.

The Ministry of Railways' public grievance page confirms 139 and links to RailMadad. Use the station complaint route for a problem at the station, and describe the location clearly. Asking for guidance at Cantt is more useful than relying on a divisional total to infer a platform or departure time.

For background on separate local rail developments, read the earlier coverage of Ather 450S at Rs 1,35,999, 450X at Rs 1,48,998: range and features compared, the Ather Rizta S at Rs 1,21,999, Rizta Z at Rs 1,36,999: what you get and the Bajaj Freedom 125 CNG price: Rs 1,04,058 to Rs 1,17,499, variants explained. These concern different services and projects; passengers should use the November 5 crowd plan specifically for the arrangements it names.